April 30, 2007

CONSERVE

Here's an excellent Cold Fury post about "putting the conserve back into conservative." It is the most sensible argument for going a little green I've ever read. My husband and I love to play the Stick It To Chavez Game. Every time we buy a new lightbulb or purchase a car, we try to imagine which choice would hurt Chavez the most. And if we save the environment a little along the way, all the better.

HUGE NUMBERS of Americans don't know jack about their government or politics. According to a Pew Research Center survey released last week, 31% of Americans don't know who the vice president is, fewer than half are aware that Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House, a mere 29% can identify "Scooter" Libby as the convicted former chief of staff of the vice president, and only 15% can name Harry Reid when asked who is the Senate majority leader.

Also last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that two-thirds of Americans believe that Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales' firing of eight U.S. attorneys was "politically motivated."

So, we are supposed to believe that two-thirds of Americans have studied the details of the U.S. attorney firings and come to an informed conclusion that they were politically motivated  even when Senate Democrats agree that there is no actual evidence that Gonzales did anything improper. Are these the same people who couldn't pick Pelosi out of a lineup? Or the 85% who couldn't name the Senate majority leader? Are we to imagine that the 31% of the electorate who still  after seven years of headlines and demonization  can't identify the vice president of the United States nonetheless have a studied opinion on the firing of New Mexico U.S. Atty. David Iglesias?

1
My first year in college (majoring in Political Science, of course, because I can't do anything that actually produces anything) the instructor started a discussion on our involvement in Kosovo. After we all got quite spirited and debated the subject he asked the most vocal arguers one after another, "And can you please point out the former Yugoslavia on this world map?"
No one could. The point was well made.

Posted by: airforcewife at April 30, 2007 04:58 PM (0dU3f)

2
The vice president, hmm.... I got it, Al Gore! It must be, I keep seeing him in the news.

3
I know it's un-American, but when people can't tell me who Nancy Pelosi is or Dick Cheney......I want to take away their right to vote. I know it's wrong, but I feel it passionately. My sister-in-law couldn't explain anything about why she voted for Deval Patrick in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race other than her *feeling* that the female Republican candidate, Kerry Healy seemed "stuck up". No policy. No issue. No statement or stand to disagree with. The problem was her perfectly coiffed blonde hair.
My sister had to pinch me so that I wouldn't let loose. Not that she cares about my sister-in-laws feelings.....she just didn't want me in trouble with our parents. LOL, that Jennifer, she's always got my back!

April 26, 2007

But you can't do that at Virginia Tech. Instead, the administration has created a "Gun-Free School Zone." Or, to be more accurate, they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone." And, like a loopy medieval sultan, they thought that simply declaring it to be so would make it so. The "gun-free zone" turned out to be a fraud -- not just because there were at least two guns on the campus last Monday, but in the more important sense that the college was promoting to its students a profoundly deluded view of the world.

2
Possibly so. But think about this: would you really want more than one untrained idiot running around with guns? It would be worse carnage than what happened.
More guns is NOT the answer. I don't know what the answer is, but arming more idiots who go charging in like Rambo is NOT the answer.

Posted by: dejah at April 26, 2007 04:50 PM (pD1u6)

3
I don't necessarily think that people who own guns are "untrained idiots." More guns isn't always the answer, but I think in this particular case it was.

Posted by: Sarah at April 26, 2007 04:53 PM (vrR+j)

4
"A profoundly deluded view of the world." Like one where Saddam possesses WMD and is working with Al Queda, and where the Mission is Accomplished?

Posted by: q at April 27, 2007 01:46 AM (n17hK)

5
Q,
Hijacking another thread, eh?
Your right, Saddam never had or used WMDs against Iran or his own people. The UN was free and able to verify that he no longer had WMDs. Hell, he was a wonderful man and his people and neighbors loved him.
There were no terrorist or their training camps in Iraq pre 2003.
We didnt crush the Iraqi army, capture Saddam, kill his lunatic sons and free the Iraqi people from a tyrannical dictator and his rap rooms and slaughter houses.
You absolutely right, the world would be a much better place with Saddam still in power.
One other thing, we should leave Iraq, that way there will be peace in Iraq and the world will be one happy place. Kumbiya my Lord, Kumbiya...

Posted by: tim at April 27, 2007 03:55 AM (nno0f)

6
It's getting harder to find places where the nutcase right still speaks up, but this site rarely disappoints.

Posted by: q at April 27, 2007 05:25 AM (n17hK)

7
...and youd be an expert on the nutcase subject.
Doesnt that tinfoil get hot?

Posted by: tim at April 27, 2007 07:15 AM (nno0f)

8
Doesn't giving dittohead get tiring? Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal is a hero. You dishonor brave soldiers like him.

Posted by: q at April 27, 2007 08:31 AM (n17hK)

9
You can't fight ideology with a gun. Iraq and virginia tech were both avoidable mistakes that Bush is directly responsible for.

Posted by: Will at April 27, 2007 10:20 AM (soQkB)

10
q,
Get a clue. Since you seem to think you know about honor, exactly how do you honor soldiers/marines? Careful now, Im setting you up.
Will,
So Columbine was Clintons fault? (Speaking of Clinton, shall we dovetail Kosovo into all this, q? )
Your freedom of speech, in your & qs case-to make an a$$ of yourselves, came from the barrel of a gun. If you didnt think that history started the day you were born, youd know that.
Freakin children. Go play with your ipods.
Till Monday kids. Late.

Posted by: tim at April 27, 2007 11:02 AM (nno0f)

11
The gun issue has always been so foggy for me. On one hand, I agree that it's so very scary to think of the kinds of people who possess weapons in our society but I also realize that many people who own guns are responsible, law-abiding citizens who realize that the gun is probably their only chance against someone else with a gun. It sounds so simple but it's so true. In many ways, I agree with the view that if we outlaw gun ownership, the only people with guns will be the outlaws.

12
Nicole: Actually, a gun is also useful against an assailant who doesn't have a gun. Say, one who is a lot stronger than you are.
It's caller an equalizer for a reason.

Posted by: Patrick Chester at April 28, 2007 07:46 AM (MKaa5)

13
OK - College Exam time. Put away your IPODs...no cheating here.
This is a multiple choice exam. One question. Two answers. You DO NOT GET to answer "C". Why? The VT students did not have access to answer C.
OK...Ready?
Scenario: You are a VT student sitting in class taking notes on the lecture when a student you've noted around campus but don't actually know walks into class, lifts his firearm, and begins taking aim. Something inside you assures you this man is not bluffing and will begin killing people within nanoseconds.
Do you:
A: Scratch your head, wondering how this can be since you are seated in a clearly marked "gun-free school zone". Silently congratulate the university administration for creating a NEARLY gun-free zone while at the same time cursing them knowing that 99+ percent of your fellow students scrupulously follow the rules. Sadly, you realize, at least one doesn't...never knowing this is to be your last thought as NUTJOB has apparently selected you to be his first casualty.
B. Take a quick assessment of the situation and realize that NUTJOB apparently holds all the cards. Drop to your knees and pray to God that by His grace there is at least one other person in the room who has disregarded the law-enforcement-by-sign approach and is carrying a weapon, determining that one additional weapon in that room statistically reduces the body count by half...implicitly understanding that if this is a particularly GOOD day for you, that other weapon in the room might end the event with only the bad guy dead or wounded, achieving a 97% to 100% needless death avoidance rate, including saving yourself, who, unknown to you, were to be first on the shooter's list of victims.
OK...time to mark your answer.
Before you do however...ask a trusted friend to help you. Ask your friend to hold your head under two feet of water for exactly 2 minutes. Not a second more, not a second less. Then, around about 1 minute, 18 seconds, try to rationally assess just what rule for good social order can prevent you from breaking your friend's arm in order to grab a precious breath of air so you may continue to live.
Time to mark your papers.
Remember...you may choose only between A or B.

April 23, 2007

WORK

Interesting study on how women need to quit their bitching: Surprise -- Men Do Just As Much Work As Women Do
For the record, my husband works way more than I do. He always has. Even when I had two jobs and felt like I was going nuts, he was deployed. So he always trumps me.

1
Oh yes. My husband has always done WAY more work than me. I only started appreicating just how much work that was when he left for deployment prep. I had to outsource of it, like the cleaning and the yard work.

3
Another hardworking woman---
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/309485032.html
I'm a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that f*cking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.
You f*ckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

4
Well if its on Craigslist it must authentic. I mean, it couldnt be a fake by some anti-war peacenik trying to spread their hate, no way.
Q, why no e-mail address? Yea, like I cant figure that one out also.

Posted by: tim at April 24, 2007 07:27 AM (nno0f)

5
How come the Craigslist poster talks about being a Marine and the post is titled "An Angry Soldier"??

7
Q,
Dont flatter yourself. Intentionally excluding your e-mail is always suspicious.
Good luck getting the whole story and truth from Congressional Committees.
As far the military honoring their dead, I highly doubt you know anything about the subject.
Go hijack a thread at the Daily Kos where they appreciate your type.
Later sheep.

Posted by: tim at April 26, 2007 04:41 AM (nno0f)

8
So let's get this straight. Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal testifies that he was told to lie about the Tillman death, and the Tillman family is aghast at the lies. That's okay with you?

9
Well...as much as I love looking at statistics because I think they tell many truths, I don't really buy this one. Most men I know would openely admit (especially those who live with wives who work full-time outside of the home) that their counterparts do a whole lot more "work" than they do in a week's time. I think the article even alluded to that in the last paragraph. Other stats point out that women with children who work outside of the home actually work the equivalent of two full-time jobs. So...although I value the work that men do, I think women still have the upper hand on that one.

April 22, 2007

TRAVEL

I'm back home visiting my parents for the weekend, so I have not been on the computer. Blogging will resume in a few days.

On Friday, my flight schedule was pretty lame. I had a one-hour flight, a four-hour layover, and a 1.5-hour flight. Ugh. As I sat down to whittle away at those four hours in the airport, I realized something horrible: I had left one of my knitting needles on the coffee table at home. Four hours with no knitting and nothing to do except try to drown out the endless CNN loop above my head. I was miserable, as any true knitting addict would be. But I called a knitter friend and laughed at my situation: Here I was in an airport that's a major R&R hub, where I saw dozens of soldiers obviously anxious to get home, and I was ready to cry because I couldn't knit. I joked with my friend that I should tell one of these soldiers how much harder my life is than his because I was having knitting withdrawals.

April 18, 2007

LINKS

Hilarious line from Steyn: "Apparently, when two hip-hoppers are up on stage doing their 'Who was that ho I saw you with last night?/That was no ho, that was my bitch' shtick, they're just keepin' it real. When a white guy does it, he's just keepin' it real unlikely he'll find gainful employment again."

And from an article by a civilian contractor in Baghdad: "Why are the Democratic Party, the mainstream press, the human rights groups, the UN leadership and the "social justice" crowd currently pushing policy that virtually guarantees an Iraq genocide? Are they not familiar with what transpired after the US abandoned South Vietnam to the communists? Can they not see that their cries for US withdrawal threaten to take Iraq to the same places as the killing fields of Cambodia and Bosnia and Rwanda?"

Also, I've been reading the book The Tipping Point, and I wanted to plug it here, to be a maven for the book, if you will. It is so good, I am reading it with a giddy smile on my face. I love this book. If you're looking for something interesting to read, check The Tipping Point out.

3
"unlikely he'll find gainful employment again"
Anyone, black or white, who uses that kind of language in public will be unlikely to find gainful employment again (except black comics and hip hoppers - and since what they do produces no value I don't count it.) The difference is the white guy like Imus at least had a job to lose.

I met a very shrewd homeless man yesterday. He was camped out in front of the doggy bakery. What a clever idea: nothing says "I have extra cash" like a lady buying sweets for her pup. I had to give him my change after that display of decadence.

Today is Charlie's 2nd birthday. It seems like an eternity since we celebrated his 1st. This year he doesn't have any friends to invite over, but we're working on it. I think I may have found a rottweiler for him to be friends with.

4
Oh my goodness! A birthday is so exciting! I like that he gets his own chair at the table. My doggies will turn 5 this summer.
Nice to quiet the guilt of luxury with a bit of spare change to the homeless guy. But I will be at the doggie bakery, too. ;-)

April 17, 2007

ANGUISH

Do you know what one man has taken away from this earth? "One of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country, working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy", and another professor whose "research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures." Not to mention the countless contributions to society these Virginia Tech students could've made after they graduated. I can't even find the words to explain how utterly disgusted and sad I feel.

When I was a substitute teacher, there was some sort of verbal exchange going on in the back of the 7th grade classroom. I intervened and must've said something about respecting the students around you -- I don't remember my exact wording, but I'll never forget the reply I got -- and the girl said, "My mom says I don't have to respect anyone who doesn't respect me first." Sheesh. I think about that girl often, especially when I saw one teenage girl who lives in my neighborhood walking down the street wearing a shirt that said "Respect Me!", as if respect is something you can demand without any give-and-take.

This notion of automatic respect is detrimental. You can't preemptively demand respect when you've done nothing to earn it. A person earns respect through his actions and words, not just by saying he wants it. I'm afraid as a society we're starting to get the concept of respect backwards, especially in these days of multiculturalism where everyone is supposed to be respected and revered no matter what.

I thought of that seventh grader today when I read about this poll out of the UK:

There have been calls for a wider debate on whether it is appropriate for the full veil to be worn in public at all. But a Gallup Poll to be published this week found most Muslims firm in the belief that Islamic women should be free to wear it.

While 55 per cent of all those polled thought that removing the veil was vital for integration, only 13 per cent of Muslims agreed.

Instead, they thought that the Government needed to change its economic and political policies toward Islamic countries and show greater respect to Islam.

That last line was the kicker for me. They don't have to do anything to earn the respect, they just should automatically get it. Most British Muslims are just regular upstanding people, but there's still a scary contingent out there that thinks the London bombing was justified and that "Western society is decadent and immoral and Muslims should seek to bring it to an end." Explain to me why people like that deserve respect when they certainly don't give it.

I'm kinda tired of this whole "you must respect me" nonsense, especially from a religion that has major global problems. I think Islam needs to start earning respect.

1
If all the 7th graders were waiting around for
someone to respect them FIRST before they gave
respect...? It's a Catch-22,isn't it?

Posted by: MaryIndiana at April 17, 2007 04:54 AM (p+YdO)

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Great post and perspective Sarah! I concur with you and hopefully my children will not be one of those that speaks to adults as that 7th grader did, hopefully I can do a better job at raising them than what that child was offered.

I just got around to flipping through the weekend's Parade Magazine, and it was pretty depressing. It was the annual edition of "What People Earn," complete with articles about how only rich people make any money. Sigh.

By most economic measures, 2006 was a great year. Despite rising interest rates, high oil prices and the sharpest housing downturn in 15 years, inflation was low, productivity rose steadily, corporate profits reached a 40-year high, the stock market soared and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%the lowest level in more than five years. Strong hiring in service businesses like education, health care, finance, travel and entertainment more than offset big job losses in the auto and housing sectors.

But in the midst of this booming economy, more than two-thirds of Americans told pollsters that they dont believe life for their childrens generation will be better than it has been for them. Only 27% of those surveyed last year thought the nation was headed in the right direction; and this year, 71% of respondents said the country was on the wrong track.

Why are the American people so stupid? Have we really become a country where we don't think we're making progress? That is just sad.

Im sorry to say I feel the rich are getting richer, and the rest of us are fighting to survive, says DeAnna Forman, who made $25,000 as a bartender in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. I feel like Im always trying to catch up. Kirk Kuchera, who earned $8,300 as a behavioral counselor for youth in Austin, Minn., agrees. It appears to me that the lower middle class continues to work its way down the economic ladder, while those at the top of the corporate ladder move higher and higher at an unbelievable pace, he says.

It appears to me that you need to take an economics class, or at least read a Thomas Sowell book. I know, when we type up the section not-so-cleverly entitled "The Rich Get Richer," let's not actually quote any rich people! Let's just quote bartenders and other player-haters who have a chip on their shoulder! Great idea, roll presses. How about actually asking one of these elusive Rich People™ how much money he had to spend in order to become rich, or how high his blood pressure is, or how many times his cell phone rings when he's on vacation. Then ask the bartender the same questions.

Experts are concerned about wage inequality too. Were in an economy that provides outsized, almost lottery-style gains to certain people in certain professions, says John Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm.

"Lottery-style gains." Nice wording. Nevermind how many years you go to college or how hard you work or how creative or inventive you are...you've simply won the lottery if you strike it rich. It's just, like, so unfair, man, that the florist and the yoga instructor can't make as much as the CEO of Halliburton. (Yes, that's right, they put the CEO of Halliburton's salary right next to the Air Force staff sergeant's, coincidentally right above the salary for someone who works in product placement.) I should totally be able to be a high school counselor and have weekends and holidays off and also get lottery-style gains! Stupid rich people.

In summary: The future of this country is going to hell in a handbasket, except for all these Clampetts who somehow managed to become CEOs. And life's not fair.

April 16, 2007

TOKEN

There's an argument going on at Political Radar over Hillary Clinton's qualifications for being president. I thought this comment by "colin" was spot-on:

Yeah it would be nice to have a woman be our President. But we cheapen the historical significance of such an event by putting our hands over our eyes to the weaknesses of a female presidential candidate just so we have a skirt at the podium with the seal of the President of the United States.

That's how Halle Berry won an Oscar, and it's the driving force behind affirmative action. When you pick someone based on anything other than his actual qualifications, you are screwing up. Who wants a token for a president?

1
Well ever since there has been mumblings that Fred Thompson might run, I have had such an "I don't care" attitude about everyone else. It's like when you're fresh in love and no matter what happens: you spill milk on the table cloth, the cat craps in you suitcase, the sprinklers doused the newspaper...oh, who cares? Life is good! A breath of fresh air...I am so excited about this.

2
Hillary was first in her class at Yale Law School. Please don't pretend that she's an affirmative action hire.

Posted by: H.Gerberger at April 16, 2007 04:56 PM (eA20k)

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H.Gerberger -- I'm not arguing whether or not she's smart enough to be president. I'm simply saying that voting for her *just because she's a woman* is absurd. That was the content of that comments section.

Posted by: Sarah at April 17, 2007 01:25 AM (vrR+j)

4
what a bunch of crap sarah - think about all the people who voted for Bush cause they wanted a "cowboy" president. everybody votes for the token they want, and candidates, men or women, encourage it.

April 14, 2007

In this dream, I heard our ex-presidents add to this chorus of war-time solidarity. Jimmy Carter reminded Americans that radical Islam had started in earnest on his watch, out of an endemic hatred of all things Western. I imagined him explaining that America began being called the Great Satan during the presidential tenure of a liberal pacifist, not a Texan conservative.

Bill Clinton would likewise add that he bombed Iraq, and Afghanistan, and East Africa without congressional or U.N. approval because of the need for unilateral action against serial terrorism and the efforts of radicals to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

George Bush Sr. would in turn lecture the media that it was once as furious at him for not removing Saddam as it is now furious at his son for doing so; that it was once as critical of him for sending too many troops to the Middle East as it is now critical of his son for sending too few; that it was once as hostile to the dictates of his excessively large coalition as it is now disparaging of his sons intolerably small alliance; that it was once as dismissive of his old concern about Iranian influence in Iraq as it is now aghast at his sons naiveté about Tehrans interest in absorbing southern Iraq; and that it was once as repulsed by his own cynical realism as it is now repulsed by his sons blinkered idealism.

Reader Oda Mae had a visitor when we lived in Germany who came to work on a project with Germans for a few weeks. He told a story at dinner that the Germans told him they could never imagine living in the United States, that it is so scary that the government could just make a person disappear. Oda Mae's friend looked at them puzzled and asked what on earth they were talking about. They replied, "Well, we've seen it on Enemy of the State." They thought a Will Smith movie was the truth about the US government.

April 13, 2007

LIFE IS GOOD

You know your life is remarkably good when your dreams are filled with knitting angst. If the hardest thing I have to deal with in my life is whether the best way to connect all these colored squares I've been making into a blanket is whipstitch or single crochet, then life is good indeed.

I heard this story on the radio yesterday -- that British swans were turning pink and some American scientists found a cure -- and what struck me and made me laugh is that the swans on the Thames river belong to the Queen, because apparently in the 12th century the Crown claimed ownership. Ha! Royalty is so weird.

I'm reminded of my Swedish class; our teacher used to organize these debates about social issues, and they were always a lot of fun. But I'll never forget the time she tried to divide the class to argue for and against having a royal family. No one could think of a single reason to argue for it! So we ended up as a class debating the teacher. We kept asking her how a people who are so intense about equality and lagom could be content to pay up to 60% of their income in taxes while another family got a free ride. You see this dress Victoria is wearing? You paid for it! Our teacher clearly didn't understand our protestations, saying that Swedes liked the royals and thought it was a good tradition. But she didn't get any takers among the Americans to argue for royalty.

It was a friend's 13th birthday party, which was the same night as the Morton Pumpkin Festival. (Yeah, that's not a joke. I love the Midwest.) We would attend the party for a while, and then my friend and I would rush to the festival where we were performing a lip sync of "The Chapel of Love." (This story didn't feel that ridiculous until I started writing it down.) Anyway, I was the groom in this dance number, so halfway through the birthday party, I went off to change into my tux. I came back to say goodbye, and my darling boyfriend took me over by the window and gave me my first kiss under the moonlight.

Look all people in the eye, even the haggard mother-types. Women like me, the ones who buy baby wipes and supersize tampons and organic milk and a guilty 24-inch Slim Jim and Us Weekly? We remember you. We remember you well. Not you in particular, but we remember how those of your age and species treated us at an early and difficult age, and it mattered. It mattered more than you knew at the time, more than we knew at the time. What you do now, how you treat the young women in your life after your shift at Big Y? I am here to tell you that it matters very much.

I am a lucky woman. I am lucky because I somehow managed to associate with boys who treated me well at the age when it mattered.

This boy from the birthday party, he was a dream. He still is. He is still one of the nicest men I have ever met, and I try to remind his parents of it every time I see them. He was a hopeless romantic, constantly writing me love letters and bringing me potted violets to the school dance. He was adorable and thoughtful and wonderful, and when I went to my high school reunion, my husband jokingly reminded me not to go home with this guy when it was over. He is the exact perfect first boyfriend anyone could ever want for her daughter. I was so lucky.

The second boyfriend was also a perfect gentleman. He was darling and nice and sweet and we could kiss until the cows came home. Oh, how we kissed. I can't tell you how many movies I was supposed to have seen in 1991 that I completely missed because I could sit lip-locked with this boy for hours on end. It makes me giggle to think about how naive and sweet we were together, just holding hands and kissing endlessly. And he too has turned into a wonderful adult. He's a C-17 pilot, and in fact I saw him a few weeks ago as he passed through town after shuttling soldiers to Iraq.

My third boyfriend never got the chance to turn into a wonderful adult. He was killed in a car accident when we were 16, so in my mind he'll always be the eccentric 8th grader who was really into Canned Heat and The Doors at a time when everyone else was out buying Vanilla Ice. I told him I loved him after we watched Pink Floyd's The Wall, and he broke his nose trying to sneak over to my house in the middle of the night. He's been gone for half my life, and I still miss him and wish I could've seen him grow up.

I had other boyfriends in my life, and some were better choices than others. But no one -- save my husband -- can top these three, the three who perfectly capture how teenage boys should treat girls. During middle school, when so many kids have a rough time, I met some of the best men I've ever known. I love these boys and always will. If I have a daughter, she will know these stories; if I have a son, he will have big shoes to fill.

April 12, 2007

The point is made with greater clarity in Hughs book, which cautions against putting Belief into the mainstream pundits meat-grinder. Because once Faith is a fair target, every aspect of faith will be put under the microscope. If you can dismiss a candidate for his belief in the golden tablets, then transubstantiation is next on the list. You want to snigger about Mormon undergarments? Fine; the next time a Sikh runs for public office, quiz him about the same issue. You want to probe a Mormon for the ways in which their Jesus narrative varies, youd best do the same to a Muslim candidate. And if you cant see yourself standing up in a press conference asking a Muslim candidate whether Christians will have a problem with him because he doesnt think Christ died on the cross, youd best throttle back your zeal for digging into a Mormon.

Amen to that. I can understand how a person can believe one religion and reject others, how he might think someone else is wrong or misguided or ignorant, but I cannot stand it when someone thinks another's religion is weirder than his.

1
Okay, I'll admit it. I have a fascination with the Mormon "garmies". And at one of our bases, our devout neighbors were SO AWESOME about passing on info that satisfied my curiousity (which wasn't perverted at all, merely interested in the true facts of something with a 10 on the rumor scale).
But after the umpteen gazillion positive interactions we've had with the huge number of Mormon servicemembers, I will be the last person to cast religious stones towards anyone of that faith. My hubby was adopted by a mainly Mormon unit while he was in Iraq, and I hold them almost 100% responsible for getting him out of there in the strong mental shape he was in.
They kept spirits up, they cheered people up, they had family members from home send letters and packages to those who were getting none.
So perhaps I'm biased.

I started watching War in Europe tonight, and I realized I had never before heard Roosevelt's Washington's Birthday Speech as the US entered WWII. Boy, how I wish I could hear this speech today. The whole thing is awesome, but this was the part I heard on the movie:

We know now that if we lose this war it will be generations or even centuries before our conception of democracy can live again. And we can lose this war only if use slow up our effort or if we waste our ammunition sniping at each other.

Here are three high purposes for every American:

1. We shall not stop work for a single day. If any dispute arises we shall keep on working while the dispute is solved by mediation, or conciliation or arbitration -- until the war is won.

2. We shall not demand special gains or special privileges or special advantages for any one group or occupation.

3. We shall give up conveniences and modify the routine of our lives if our country asks us to do so. We will do it cheerfully, remembering that the common enemy seeks to destroy every home and every freedom in every part of our land.

This generation of Americans has come to realize, with a present and personal realization, that there is something larger and more important than the life of any individual or of any individual group -- something for which a man will sacrifice, and gladly sacrifice, not only his pleasures, not only his goods, not only his associations with those he loves, but his life itself. In time of crisis when the future is in the balance, we come to understand, with full recognition and devotion, what this nation is and what we owe to it.

And Roosevelt discussed the flypaper strategy long before Andrew Sullivan:

Those Americans who believed that we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted the American eagle to imitate the tactics of the ostrich. Now, many of those same people, afraid that we may be sticking our necks out, want our national bird to be turned into a turtle. But we prefer to retain the eagle as it is -- flying high and striking hard.

I know I speak for the mass of the American people when I say that we reject the turtle policy and will continue increasingly the policy of carrying the war to the enemy in distant lands and distant waters -- as far away as possible from our own home grounds.

But imagine anyone accepting this from today's president:

Your Government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your Government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us. In a democracy there is always a solemn pact of truth between government and the people, but there must also always be a full use of discretion, and that word "discretion" applies to the critics of government as well.

This is war. The American people want to know, and will be told, the general trend of how the war is going. But they do not wish to help the enemy any more than our fighting forces do, and they will pay little attention to the rumor-mongers and the poison peddlers in our midst.

1Your Government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your Government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us. In a democracy there is always a solemn pact of truth between government and the people, but there must also always be a full use of discretion, and that word "discretion" applies to the critics of government as well.
Problem with that paragraph it that since 1946 government has done about zero to deserve OUR confidence, and has done a shitload to diserve our mistrust. Fifty one years of lies have a way of creeping up and biting you in the ass as the executive, and legaslative branches are finding out.

Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at April 12, 2007 12:00 PM (BR9zA)

2
Did you catch this part:
"We Americans will contribute unified production and unified acceptance of sacrifice and of effort. That means a national unity that can know no limitations of race or creed or selfish politics. The American people expect that much from themselves. And the American people will find ways and means of expressing their determination to their enemies..."
Contrast that statement to all the bickering in Washington about setting deadlines and pulling out. "A national unity that can know no limitations of ... selfish politics." President Roosevelt must be rolling in his grave over the actions of politicians this last month. And expressing determination?! Apparently the only determination our politicians can express these days is a determination to give up the fight and abandon our military members at home and abroad!

Deployments have been extended to 15 months. I understand this. I know why it has to be done and why it makes sense. I consider us lucky that we even have deployment "ends", unlike in WWII when they fought until they were dead or the war ended, whichever came first. I know all of these things logically, and I accept them as a consequence of war. But. I know what my husband was like after 13 months of non-stop work. I heard his voice around the ninth month, right before R&R, when he sounded robotic and detached. I felt his monotony and f*ck-it attitude in every conversation we had. That's a long time to be at war. I feel sorry for these soldiers who will have to ball up and tough it out.

1
Yeah tell us again what a success he "SURGE" is, why if it were the success the neo-conmen claimed it were wouldn't it follow that tour lengths would be reduced, rather than extended???

Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at April 12, 2007 12:03 PM (BR9zA)

2
No Bubba, it wouldn't follow. Get a clue before you make wild leaps of logic. A then B doesn't mean A caused B.
And by the way, as soon as someone reads the namecalling, they stop taking you seriously.

5
As the wife of one of those extended soldiers...I think it is bunch of BS as well. Bush loves to point out success, but each one of his so-call success ends up costing someone a price. Soldier gets longer tours, Vets get reimbursed reduced for travel to and from VA appointments and the middle class generally gets screwed.
I realize WWII soldiers stuck it out til death or the war ended but this is not 1945 and with advancements in weapons, training and strategy .....can't we get it right!

Posted by: Vonn at April 13, 2007 04:46 PM (/VoEr)

6
Hey Patrick if I call you a clueless fucktard, that would be name calling, neo-conmen is, as the military wife(Vonn) pointed out not out of bounds. Oh btw you clueless fucktard you have a DD-214 yet, if not STFU troll.

Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at April 13, 2007 06:32 PM (BR9zA)

7
...ah, yes. Same old Brain.
Thanks, I think you've adequately demonstrated Ted's point about your behavior leading to people not taking you seriously. Good job.

Posted by: Patrick Chester at April 15, 2007 01:12 AM (MKaa5)

8
Frankly Patrick I do not give a flying fuck if you under 35 conservatards take me seriously, you are all horribly inexperienced at life. As I mentioned before show me a DD-214, and I might respect you, I did my time asshole 4, May '77, thru 11 Apr, 83, what were your DOE, and DOS, huh? Oh yeah an MOS/AFSC might be a nice piece of information also my AFSC was 39150, so there you go a challenge to you.

Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at April 15, 2007 07:24 AM (BR9zA)

9
You seem to be under the delusion that I desire your respect. Oddly enough, judging by your bluster and general behavior, I tend to picture you as a loudmouthed teenager. Not the sort of person whose respect I wish to command.
You've managed to make yourself look even more pathetic than last time. How far someone can fall... from Maintenance Analysis Specialist to essentially an unhinged net.bully trying to intimidate people into silence.
Alas, the only way Brain can "silence" people is when they tire of responding to his bluster.

Posted by: Patrick Chester at April 16, 2007 12:42 AM (MKaa5)

10
Alas Patrick refuses to bother to answer my question, which only reinforces my suspicion he is a cheeto eating college frat rat slob "fighting a war of words" from his mommy's and daddy's basement. As for my respect, you probably will never earn it, which is why I give you the written equivalent of the back of my hand across your punk mouth. Like I said you fucking chicken-shit chicken hawk post up some DD-214 data, and I might speak to you in a different manner, until then go look at some free porn and continue jerking off maggot.

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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.--The Count of Monte Cristo--

While our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending.--Deskmerc--

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Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, WWII, and the Star Wars Trilogy.--Bart Simpson--

If you want to be a peacemaker, you've gotta learn to kick ass.--Sheriff of East Houston, Superman II--

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.--Jed Babbin--

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.--President John F. Kennedy--

War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours.--General Patton--

Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed.--Dick Cheney--

The Flag has to come first if freedom is to survive.--Col Steven Arrington--

The purpose of diplomacy isn't to make us feel good about Eurocentric diplomatic skills, and having countries from the axis of chocolate tie our shoelaces together does nothing to advance our infantry.--Sir George--

I just don't care about the criticism I receive every day, because I know the cause I defend is right.--Oriol--

It's days like this when we're reminded that freedom isn't free.--Chaplain Jacob--

Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face.--David Smith--

The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results.--President Bush--

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
--John Galt--

First, go buy a six pack and swig it all down. Then, watch Ace Ventura. And after that, buy a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and come talk to me. You really need to lighten up, man.
--Sminklemeyer--

If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight!--Patrick Henry--

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.--President George W. Bush--

are usually just cheerleading sessions, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but a soothing reduction in blood pressure brought about by the narcotic high of being agreed with.--Bill Whittle

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.--General George Marshall--

We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.
--Buzz Aldrin--

America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.
--Dinesh D'Souza--

Recent anti-Israel protests remind us again of our era's peculiar alliance: the most violent, intolerant, militantly religious movement in modern times has the peace movement on its side.--James Lileks--

As a wise man once said: we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Unless the price is too high, the burden too great, the hardship too hard, the friend acts disproportionately, and the foe fights back. In which case, we need a timetable.
--James Lileks--

I am not willing to kill a man so that he will agree with my faith, but I am prepared to kill a man so that he cannot force my compatriots to submit to his.
--Froggy--

You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties.
--Varifrank--

In a perfect world, We'd live in peace and love and harmony with each oither and the world, but then, in a perfect world, Yoko would have taken the bullet.
--SarahBellum--

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.--Ronald Reagan--

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.--E.M. Forster--

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.--Mark Twain--

The Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which touched every European state, sparked vicious guerrilla conflicts across the Continent and killed millions. Then, things really turned ugly after the invention of soccer.--Iowahawk--

Every time I meet an Iraqi Army Soldier or Policeman that I haven't met before, I shake his hand and thank him for his service. Many times I am thanked for being here and helping his country. I always tell them that free people help each other and that those that truly value freedom help those seeking it no matter the cost.--Jack Army--

Right, left - the terms are useless nowadays anyway. There are statists, and there are individualists. There are pessimists, and optimists. There are people who look backwards and trust in the West, and those who look forward and trust in The World. Those are the continuums that seem to matter the most right now.--Lileks--

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston Churchill--

A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it.--Arthur Conan Doyle--

A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself.--John Stuart Mill--

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference."--Dave Grossman--

At heart I’m a cowboy; my attitude is if they’re not going to stand up and fight for what they believe in then they can go pound sand.--Bill Whittle--

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.--Alexander Tyler--

By that time a village half-wit could see what generations of professors had pretended not to notice.--Atlas Shrugged--

I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, "That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too."--Alabama Worley--

So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists don’t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet held talks without preconditions with.
--Mark Steyn--

"I had started alone in this journey called life, people started
gathering up on the way, and the caravan got bigger everyday."--Urdu couplet

The book and the sword are the two things that control the world. We either gonna control them through knowledge and influence their minds, or we gonna bring the sword and take their heads off.--RZA--

It's a daily game of public Frogger, hopping frantically to avoid being crushed under the weight of your own narcissism, banality, and plain old stupidity.--Mary Katharine Ham--

There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms
of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.--James Madison--

It is in the heat of emotion that good people must remember to stand on principle.--Larry Elder--

Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.--from a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt--

The world economy depends every day on some engineer, farmer, architect, radiator shop owner, truck driver or plumber getting up at 5AM, going to work, toiling hard, and producing real wealth so that an array of bureaucrats, regulators, and redistributors can manage the proper allotment of much of the natural largess produced.--VDH--

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.--Marcelene Cox--